Chapter Twenty-Two
Amber deserved to hear the news of her father’s passing in person, and Bastion agreed that she would want to hear it directly from an eyewitness.
I hated that it had to be me, and the temptation was there to let Bastion spill the beans instead. I pushed that thought down. It was my job to do, and I’d do it. Even if it was my least favourite part of my job.
I hated that I was about to destroy a perfectly normal day. Estranged or not, there was no good way to tell someone that the man who had helped make them was gone.
I drew in a slow breath and stared out at the blur of road ahead. Robbie was driving, so I had my hands free to call Amber. No excuses left.
‘Just going to call DeLea,’ I told him before dialling.
He nodded and turned the radio off while I rang her.
The sudden silence felt too loud, filled only by the soft hum of the engine and the rhythmic sweep of the wipers.
Liverpool slid past the windows in streaks of grey and amber streetlight.
The city was going to bed, bar the revellers who hadn’t been put off by the rain.
Robbie’s hand found my thigh for a brief, steadying squeeze. He didn’t look at me, eyes fixed on the road, but the touch said everything I needed.
I hit call.
‘Do you know what time it is, Wise?’ Amber answered on a yawn.
‘I do. I’m sorry. Can you come to my flat?’
‘Is Bastion okay?’ she asked, alarm spiking in her tone. ‘Our bond is muted.’
He was trying to keep the bad news to himself until I could tell her in person, I supposed. ‘He’s fine,’ I promised. ‘Can you come to mine?’
‘Now?’
‘Now. It’s important.’
‘It better be. I’ll be there in forty-five. I’m in my jammies.’
‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘Come in your pyjamas if you want.’
She snorted. ‘Absolutely not. Don’t be absurd. Someone could see me. See you shortly, Inspector.’ She hung up.
Passing the death message always sucked, but it was ten times worse when you had to pass it to someone you knew.
I was not looking forward to the coming conversation.
And there was another one I needed to have too, but I couldn’t think of it, even for a moment.
I had to notify Amber first. That was the right thing to do.
‘Are you all right?’ Robbie asked.
‘She fine!’ Loki answered for me, little chest puffing out in pride. ‘She tough.’
I smiled at the bird. ‘I am, but …’ I shook my head. ‘This has been one hell of a day. That’s for sure. Facing Broadlake like that …’
Robbie took my hand with his spare one.
‘I … I expected it to break me,’ I admitted.
‘Expected to fall apart. To need to wail and gnash my teeth after seeing him. Instead … I feel sorry for him. I believe him. Believe it wasn’t him wielding his own hands.
Seeing him didn’t break me. If anything, I feel stronger.
My kidnapping … it no longer defines me. ’
‘It never did,’ Robbie murmured. He lifted our joined hands and kissed the back of mine gently.
‘Maybe it didn’t,’ I admitted. ‘But it felt like it did. For so damned long, it felt like it did. I honestly feel … lighter. Lighter than I have in years.’
‘I’m glad, kaerasta. My fierce hersmóeir.’
He pressed another kiss to my knuckles, and he didn’t let my hand go for the rest of the journey.
Above us, crows flew.
Bastion had arrived before us and, predictably, let himself into my flat.
Robbie didn’t love that, his mercury eyes going hard. ‘It’s rude to let yourself into a home uninvited,’ he said, a shade away from a growl.
‘No insult was intended,’ Bastion said placatingly as he paced. ‘I am anxious for Amber.’
Robbie’s glare faded. He understood that. I’d heard him murmuring with Ivan and Maktel about setting guards over my flat. He was anxious over me too.
I didn’t argue with him about the guards. With the Domini gunning for me, an ogre presence overnight, while I was sleeping, sounded like a good idea.
There was a sharp rap at the door not too long later, and I opened it to Amber and a man I didn’t know.
Amber had her black tote bag slung on her shoulder, and as promised, she wasn’t dressed in her PJs.
Instead she wore a blue flowing skirt and a white peasant shirt that suited her well.
Her usually loose red hair was tied into a severe braid.
I couldn’t help but notice it was the same shade as her father’s hair.
The man standing next to her looked like he was on a job, his body language tense.
‘My driver and guard,’ Amber said when my eyes roved over him. ‘Oscar.’
I stepped back to let them both gain entrance.
Oscar moved like ex-military, movements sharp and precise. He was in his sixties, I’d guess, with salt-and-pepper hair, a strong frame and zero sign of a beer belly. His eyes scanned the flat, cataloguing entrances and exits. Definitely ex-military.
‘Bastion wouldn’t leave me alone without a guard,’ Amber explained. ‘As if I can’t protect myself.’ She huffed.
‘You’re formidable, Bambi,’ Bastion said to his fiancé, ‘but you’re not a warrior.’
She set down her black tote bag and flew to him. He caught her and folded her into his arms, something I’d never seen him do in front of others. He gathered her close, and he pressed a chaste kiss to her temples.
‘Uh-oh,’ she said, tensing. ‘What happened? What did my father say? What did he do?’
‘I’m sorry,’ I began. ‘Your father died this evening.’
‘An oath death,’ Bastion added. ‘I’m so sorry, Amber.’
She recoiled, her green eyes flaring wide with shock. ‘An oath death?’ she whispered. ‘Oh, Great Goddess.’ She clung to Bastion, and her shoulders shook as she began to cry.
It was hard to see the usually indomitable woman falling apart. On an average day she held her cards close to her chest; you barely knew what she thought, let alone felt. That she felt she could show her emotions here touched me. She trusted me enough to let her guard down around me.
‘I should have visited him,’ she said brokenly between sobs. ‘I don’t know why I’m crying. He left. He abandoned me.’
‘Your mother sent him away,’ Bastion corrected softly. ‘To protect you from the evil magic he was practising. And he loved you … in his own way. He protected you.’
‘Yes.’ She nodded against his shoulder. ‘He did.’
She cried quietly in her lover’s arms, and we all stood silently and awkwardly as she grieved. My gut twisted in sympathy. I knew well what it was to lose a father.
Eventually, unable to stand it any longer, Oscar came over and offered his arms to Amber as well. She relinquished her hold on Bastion and fell into Oscar’s arms with a wailed, ‘Dad.’
‘I’m sorry for your loss, Am,’ Oscar murmured.
‘It’s no loss!’ she objected, her voice quavering. ‘I don’t know why I’m crying.’
‘Because it is a loss, love. And that’s okay.’
‘It doesn’t make sense.’
‘Love often doesn’t,’ Oscar said with a shrug. He gathered her close. ‘Let go, Am.’
She did, collapsing once more into her guard’s arms. Eventually she stopped crying and wiped her tears away fiercely. She stood, pushing away from her protectors.
‘I apologise for my conduct,’ she said stiffly to me.
‘Amber,’ I said, ‘when my dad died, I cried for weeks. Months even.’
The kettle flicked on and off once.
‘You have nothing to apologise for,’ I continued. I swallowed hard and braced myself for the vitriol that was surely to come. ‘If anything, I’m the one who should be apologising. I spoke to your father and asked him about the Domini. And he answered. It’s my fault he’s dead.’
Amber pressed her lips together and shook her head. ‘No, it’s his fault. His choice. He chose to answer you.’
And thank God he had. If Robbie and I had forced him to answer through piping and then he’d died, the guilt riding me would be ten times worse. Thank goodness for Pritchard and his presence with his overly polished shoes.
‘He did,’ I agreed. ‘But if I hadn’t asked about them …’
‘He could have spoken to anyone about the Domini if he wanted. The oath death would have taken him all the same.’
‘I had expected him to – at best – speak to me in riddles and half-truths. I never expected him to blurt out all he knew.’
‘What did he tell you?’
I relayed the conversation, and when I was done, she sighed. ‘Nothing more than we already knew, then.’
I felt the censure in the words, though there was none in her tone; her father had died for nothing. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said.
Her gaze sharpened on mine. ‘Stop apologising. He was a bad person. The worst type of person. He was a necromancer, and he helped create a harkan crystal.’
She had a point. A harkan crystal was created by collecting a single drop of blood at a time from a murder victim and crystallising those drops through magic.
A harkan held vast and frankly terrifying power.
I hadn’t seen the size of the crystal he had made at the time of his arrest since Amber had already destroyed it, but she’d described it as the size of her fist.
I would predict that hundreds, if not a thousand, people had died to create a harkan that size.
She was right. He had been a bad person. A terrible one.
‘He was still your father.’
‘Barely.’ She reached a blind hand out to Oscar. ‘Luckily, I have another.’
He took her hand and squeezed it.
She stood on shaky legs. ‘I appreciate you telling me in person, but I don’t hold you at fault, Inspector.’
‘Stacy,’ I corrected.
She dabbed at her eyes. ‘Stacy.’
Loki flew to her and landed lightly on her shoulder. He pressed his little head into her neck, offering silent support. He liked Amber; she’d helped him a couple of times now, and giving a bird back his wings was probably the best thing you could ever do.
She stroked him gently and let out a soft sigh.
Amber looked towards me, her face solemn. ‘The Goddess told me … well, I have something weird to give you.’
‘Weird?’
She walked over to her tote bag and pulled out two small rotund vials. ‘This one is poison. Fast-acting. Deadly. This one is the antidote.’
I baulked. ‘What?’
‘The Goddess told me you’re going to need them. So, here we are. The poison acts quickly. You’ll have no more than a minute or two after the poison’s contacted skin to give the antidote.’
I licked suddenly parched lips. ‘What the hell am I supposed to do with those?’
‘I imagine,’ she said, green eyes looking amused, ‘that you’re supposed to poison somebody.’
Amber, Oscar and Bastion saw themselves out. Despite the late hour, neither Robbie nor I got ready for bed.
‘Now I’m supposed to poison someone,’ I muttered to Robbie. ‘But the question is, who?’
He shrugged. ‘It’ll come to you. Are you okay?’
‘I’m fine.’ I chewed on my bottom lip. ‘I need to speak to Bob.’
Robbie didn’t look surprised in the slightest at my announcement. He’d made the same deductions I had. Deductions that had my heart racing every time I thought of them.
‘Bob,’ I called. ‘Are you here?’
A banana rose from the fruit bowl in answer.
Great, he was here, and we were communicating through fruit again.
I cleared my throat, unable to decide how to begin this conversation.
‘So, as you’ve probably picked up, I went to Wraithmore prison today to see Vance Broadlake, and he told me he wasn’t responsible for his actions, that he was possessed by a doppelganger at the time.
’ I cleared my throat. ‘He explained that the only reason he’s still living is that he used the IR to sever his soul from his body at the exact moment Jingo left his body.
And it got me thinking. You visited Broadlake.
Believed him when he told you the truth about being subsumed.
You knew then that he didn’t hurt me. Jude Jingo did.
Ji-ho got into your arrest files. You arrested Jingo a lot.
I’m guessing that was after you found out what he did to me.
You made yourself a nuisance. Made yourself a target.
You wanted him to gun for you. You wanted to kill him.
But how do you kill a doppelganger when they hop bodies at the moment of death?
You loosen your soul to give them nothing to latch onto.
You hoped he’d die, like all the souls he’d possessed had done.
But instead, I’m guessing by sheer dumb luck, some poor fucker walked by, and Jude survived.
He latched onto a passerby instead, and your body lay there dying.
But … you didn’t die, Dad, did you? Not completely. Somehow, you stayed.’
I swallowed hard. ‘If I’m right, Dad, lift the banana up.’
For a beat, nothing happened.
Then the banana rose.